'Not so young, Mr Dooher

'Mark. You're Christina, I'm Mark, okay?'

She nodded. 'But I'm really not so young. I'm twenty-seven. I didn't start law school until two years after college.'

'… so you've already got practical work experience? Look, Christina, after what I'm hearing, if you don't come down and apply at McCabe & Roth, I will come out to USF and try to recruit you myself, clear?' He grinned.

Her champagne was half-gone. 'I should really watch what I say when I'm drinking. Now Joe is really going to be upset.'

'I bet he won't be upset.' He touched her arm. 'Don't you be upset either. This is a party. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to push it if it's-'

'No, he will. He also said that there's no sense applying if we're going to get married because there's a policy against attorneys being married.'

'Are you engaged? I don't see a ring.'

'Well, not yet, not exactly, but…'

Dooher pushed it. 'Christina, Joe's a good attorney but this doesn't have to do with him. It has to do with what's best for your career. It's your decision. You come down and apply, and it'll go through channels from there,capisce?'

'All right.'

'Promise?'

She nodded.

He clinked his glass against hers, and they drank.

CHAPTER THREE

He awoke without the alarm in the half-dark, listening to the water still dripping from the gutters. The digital clock on the nightstand read 5:30.

He and Sheila hadn't come up to bed until nearly 2:00, but Dooher had always been able to wake up at any time he wanted, no matter how long he'd slept. It was a matter of control, of discipline.